The Hades Chronicles I: Hades Director's Cut
by Basilisk9466
Summary: The heavily rewritten edition of the first part of the Hades Chronicles. This is how it should have been done... note that it does not extend to the end of Hades.
1. Chapter 1

_Insert disclaimer here._

_Welcome back, good people... this is it. The start of what a lot of you have been waiting for. The Hades Chronicles has been dusted off, and the sequel trilogy is being ground out. Soon you'll get your first taste of The Rising Darkness I: The Fading Light._

_But to whet your appetite, here is the monster that has kept me away from the Hades universe: the rewrite to the Chronicles. Don't get over-excited, it's incomplete, and I doubt it will ever be finished. But the important stuff has been done. This is how the original Hades should have been. From here on in, the Chronicles were, if not perfect, at least acceptable._

_You're under no obligations to read it, but I hope you do anyway. If you haven't read the original Hades, well, here's a chance to get new fans =P_

_As another note, there are one or two minor plot changes between the rewrite and the original. But I'm not going to highlight them, because that might give some of the Darkness plot away... kudos to any who spot them, but please don't spoil it for everyone else ^^_

_So. Without further ado...  
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Imagine space.

Imagine the endless void. There are millions of stars in each galaxy, millions of galaxies within the universe… and yet the distances are infinite. The majority of our realm is nothingness. The stars and planets that we, and indeed all life, depends upon, are as specks of dust. Miniscule sparks of light and heat and energy.

Take a journey through the void towards one particular spark. A yellow star, surrounded by eight planets.

The third planet is green and blue. The home of a small ape-like creature that has learned to play tricks with the universe. The home of mankind. Earth. A sanctuary.

No. Not a sanctuary. Not any more.

The year is 2194. What was inevitable ever since the first discovery of the biomechanical life form known as the xenomorph has occurred. The greed and arrogance of humanity has allowed the Aliens to overrun our 'sanctuary'.

Earth is dying. The death count is in the billions. And still the black tide of nightmares advances.

The cause of the infestation is not chronicled here. It is not important. All that is important is that they are here.

Spaceports swarm with desperate refugees, only a few of which have managed to do escape from the planet. Many more have died still waiting for salvation.

Now one last city remains in human hands, and the black tide will soon overrun it. Rumours that the military intend to detonate nuclear warheads in an attempt to wipe out the Alien horde as a last resort spur the last remnants on.

The clock is ticking…


	2. Exodus

The lights flickered, and then went out.

Jake Lee cursed, and moved to the window of the derelict house. Sure enough, the entire district seemed to have lost power. Whether or not it would be restored was another question.

"Another power station gone?" came a voice from behind him. He turned, surprised. Holly Chance was one of the quietest people he knew; throughout their flight from the hives, she had obeyed instructions in complete, exhausted silence. Briefly he wondered what had made the conscript so emotionally drained. Probing the matter only produced such a desolate look that you felt obliged to leave the issue. Was she starting to recover?

"What else could it be?" That, at least, was not a surprise. If Holly was the quietest in the motley group of refugees, the huddled figure of Edward Hukken was the gloomiest. "The damned military don't care about people losing light and heat, they just care about saving their own hides." He took off his spectacles and fiddled with them nervously, the classic image of a scientist.

"Hush," said Jake. Now was not the time for another of Hukken's tirades about military priorities. "You don't want to wake them," he added with a gesture at the sleeping Gearing family.

Family. There was a sick humour to giving them that title. In a proper family, under normal circumstances, the twin sisters Artemis and Anigel, and their little brother Thomas, wouldn't even have been let out alone yet. Sleeping peacefully in the corner of the room, it was hard to believe that they had come stumbling into the district a few weeks ago, covered in blood and telling wild tales of the slaughter of their town.

Jake moved a chair to the window to give himself a view of the city, and collapsed into it. Such activities were necessary for survival. The bugs always attacked the dark places first. Well, usually. A few minutes warning could make all the difference.

Constant threat has a way of keeping the human body going for far longer than normal, but the advancing Alien swarm had maintained that threat for longer than even that. Jake was tired – more than that, he was shattered. They say that stress ages you, and the painfully slow movement away from the infected regions had proved that for him. His family was long dead – taken by drones in the night. His life, such as it was, had been destroyed. If there hadn't been people who needed guidance, who needed a leader to get them to the spaceport to escape from Earth, he might have stayed and waited for the end. A part of him still wanted to.

He checked his watch. The display flashed 04:48 at him. Another hour until it was time to move. With any luck, they'd reach the last perimeter by midday.

A flicker of movement out of the window, and his gaze snapped to it. A few hundred metres down the road, a black shape was crouched by a burnt-out car.

It moved again, and Jake relaxed. A dog. Nothing to be worried about, even if it did have a furtive, hungry look to its actions.

The dog stiffened, and turned to run. It got only a few metres before another black shape leapt from the rooftops in pursuit.

The dog howled pitifully, and then the second creature overtook. Blood sprayed as the unfortunate mutt was ripped apart.

The drone looked up, scanning the area. Jake froze instinctively, wondering whether it would do any good. The bugs didn't seem to have eyes, but that didn't mean anything.

It leaned down and picked up the gory carcase, before loping away towards the outskirts of the city. If it had sensed the six refugees, it hadn't considered them worth dealing with.

Jake slowly unfroze, and cast a look at the others. All were still, dozing gently. Away in the only true refuge from the Aliens, so long as you didn't dream.

The first rays of light peeked out over the horizon.

As the sun slowly rose, little black specks became visible swarming through the ruins of the city. It was a sight that might once have been terrifying, but had become commonplace. Fear can age and weaken like anything else.

***

INCOMING VESSEL DETECTED

VESSEL IDENTIFIED: CRUISER _MEI'SHA'DTE KCH-T'SHA'RE_

ACTIVATING INTERDICTION FREQUENCY

INTERDICTION FREQUENCY FAILURE

INCREASING ALERT LEVEL

***

"Jake."

"Mmmph…"

"Jake, wake up!"

Jake's eyes snapped open and focused on Artemis. "How long was I asleep?" he demanded urgently.

She looked at him with worried eyes. "I don't know. You were out for the count when I woke up."

He stood, and blinked in the blinding glare of the sun. He checked his watch. 08:19, it flashed cheerfully.

"We need to get moving," he said. "Wake the others up." She moved off, leaving him to his thoughts. If he'd gone to sleep in the middle of the night… if an Alien had come…

Best not to think about such things.

"Come on!" he called. "We need to get to that spaceport today, or we'll get overtaken by the hives."

Hukken was grumbling faintly, but the others silently stood looking at Jake. Tired and expectant.

He wondered if he should say something, bolster the flagging spirits. But then he realised that no words would be enough. Only the feeling of being at the spaceport and embarking to leave the hellhole that Earth had become would restore any form of happiness. If that wasn't too strong a word.

So instead, he turned and led the way out into the decimated streets. Violent gangs had ripped a lot of cities apart in panic and a strange power lust, perhaps hoping subconsciously to scare off the Aliens. They'd died down pretty quickly as human settlements vanished one by one under the black tide, with nothing to show for the futile attempts at defence.

He remembered one terrifying night a week ago, out in the country. Lack of prey made the hives move faster, and the little group had barely made it to a military checkpoint ahead of a ravening pack of drones. The Aliens had been gunned down, but there had been no joy in the face of the commanding sergeant. "Plenty more where those came from," had been his only comment before shooing the civilians away from the front line.

The man was probably dead now.

And there were always plenty more drones.

For a moment, Jake thought back to when the infestation had first been made public. The mere existence of such a vicious lifeform, kept secret prior to then, had been a shock, but there had been such confidence that they would be wiped out in short order. Hell, the entire marine training corps was here, not to mention the private armies of mercenaries at the disposal of the great corporations.

How had everyone been so blind? Had those high up known how hopeless the battle would be?

Rumours flitted around that the Aliens had been brought to Earth intentionally in the hope that they could be controlled. Things had gone wrong and they'd been released. There were also wilder rumours that this hadn't been an accident, that someone had allowed the spread of the hives so that there were plenty of the Aliens for some unknown purpose.

There were a lot of rumours. Rumours were humanity's way of coping with the horrible possibility that they had finally met something that they couldn't beat.

A faint noise yanked Jake back to reality. The noise came again, metal faintly scraping across metal. A rattle.

The noises came from ahead. Jake kept moving, scanning the area for the source. Movement was better than stillness against the bugs. You could be stood stock still in the dark, absolutely silent in the middle of a thunderstorm and they'd still find you.

And you wouldn't see them until too late. Even then, all you would see is the teeth, shining like little stars.

That was how his wife had died. Drones had got upstairs and killed his two sons, then come down looking for the rest of the family. They had run for cover, submerging themselves in a dark alleyway full of rubbish bins.

The Russian Roulette of fate had spun and picked her. The single drone that had followed them attacked her, and he'd been able to run.

Survivor's guilt was a hard thing to live with.

He sensed something behind and spun. Crouched, shining like wet pearls in the early morning sunlight, two drones watched them.

Their eyeless stare bore into him like an industrial laser cutter. They were so still that they could have been statues, but something about them dispelled any possibility of that.

Then they were falling, the rattle of carbine fire accompanying the spraying of acidic blood. Jake turned to see a small group of men in military uniform at the entrance to the alleyway where the noises had come from.

"Don't just stand there!" the leader, a wiry corporal, barked. "Recon says there are more inbound!"

Jake hurried over, and the others followed. He opened his mouth to thank the man, but he waved it aside. "No time. You're lucky we found you," the corporal continued as they began a swift jog towards the inner city. "We're abandoning the outer patrols. We lose too many, and those that don't get killed by the bugs miss them entirely."

"Movement behind us, sir," interrupted one of the grunts. "Looks like a third one. Down that alley."

The corporal stopped. "We'd better pop it, otherwise it'll dog our tracks all the way back to perimeter. Watch yourselves. It's mine."

He stalked off towards the alley indicated. The two buildings that made it up were in a bad state, the walls broken in. At the end, a black shape was just visible.

The corporal stopped ten metres from the motionless drone, and raised the carbine.

With a soft hiss, the _other_ drone crawled over the ruined wall right next to him. He slowly glanced up and whispered something.

Then there was a blur of violence, a scream, and drones began pouring into the road.

The soldiers didn't bother with shocked responses, they just raised their weapons and fired. Jake turned and ran. The sheer number of the Xenomorphs promised certain death to any who stood against them.

The horrible screeches of the dying drones chased them along the street, to the tune of the rapid hammering of the carbines, soon replaced by cut-off screams.

Then there was nothing but the need to escape, the all-consuming instinct for survival that eradicated all other considerations.

Fatigue finally overwhelmed adrenalin, and Jake slowed. There was no sound of pursuit. The Aliens had decided to let them live.

This time.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

Jake looked up, and a wave of relief swept over him.

The perimeter. Terror had provided the burst needed to make it to safety.

The soldiers looked at him suspiciously. "Well?" the leader demanded.

"I'm Jake Lee. These are Holly Chance, Edward Hukken and Anigel, Artemis and Thomas Gearing."

The soldier shrugged. "I'd ask what your purpose at the spaceport is, but we both know the answer. How far have you come?"

Jake grimaced. "About fifty miles. We barely kept ahead of the hives."

The other winced sympathetically. "You've been lucky so far. I hate to say it, but that luck just ran out."

Jake just stared, praying that the soldier didn't mean what he thought he did.

"The few remaining ships are all military. Evacuation of key personnel only. Everything and everyone else is already gone."

"Everything?" asked Hukken.

"Unless you want a ride with hell's ferryman," put in one of the other soldiers with a nasty laugh. "If you really are desperate – and hell, who wouldn't be – try docking bay 13."

The leader nodded, unsmiling. "That ship is the only one that might even consider taking more people. But you might wish that you'd stayed here." He waved them through, his expression indicating that they were already forgotten.

Jake led the way through the defences, both the vicious looking sentry turrets and scarred men ignoring them. The dim lights of the spaceport loomed.

The ugly, metallic corridors were silent, only the occasional distant voice or clang of metal suggesting that it was still inhabited.

"What did he mean, 'hell's ferryman'?" asked Thomas quietly.

Holly smiled faintly, a rare display of any kind of emotion, and pointed at the flickering sign ahead of them.

Docking Bay 13. Current occupant: civilian vessel _Charon_.

"Charon," she said. "He carried the dead across the river Styx into the underworld in Greek mythology." She paused. "I hope that's not a bad omen."

Beneath the sign, a tall set of double doors were wedged open. Through them, an ugly lump of metal sat on stubby legs, while a lean figure paced in front of the long loading ramp.

The man started as he noticed them hovering in the entrance. "Captain Caraeus Hector, at your service," he said doubtfully. "You sure you're in the right place?"

Jake nodded, puzzled. "The officials said to come here. No other civilian ships."

Hector gave him a twisted smile. "They probably thought that would be a good joke. The _Charon_'s not spaceworthy enough for passengers." He sighed. "This crate was going to be a colony ship. The project that would make our sponsors a fortune. Just planning the expedition nearly bankrupted them, so they made _Charon_ out of second-hand parts. Then the Xenomorphs turned up, ship part prices went through the roof, and the company really did go bankrupt."

"It won't fly at all?" asked Jake in horror.

The Captain shrugged. "She can _fly_, it's just a question of whether or not she'll disintegrate in mid-flight. All the essentials are here, it's just that the computer, E-space drive and a lot of other stuff are held together with spit and duct tape. Other components that anyone sane wouldn't fly without are missing entirely. I wouldn't trust _Charon_ to go anywhere with a cargo."

Holly leaned forward and gripped Hector by the collar. "This is the only ship," she said, biting off each word and staring daggers at him.

Hector winced. "Listen, miss, if I were you I'd take my chances here. Other ships are coming to pick up the last survivors. Just a few more days…"

"We don't _have_ a few more days!" she snarled.

He paused, and then nodded slowly. "All right. I'll need time to do some rewiring so we've got enough hypersleep capsules, plus we haven't finished loading."

Hukken raised an eyebrow. "Loading? I thought you said the _Charon_ wasn't fit for cargo."

"No choice," said Hector regretfully. "It'll play merry hell with the E-space drive, but it was the condition for getting the parts needed to be able to get her off the ground at all: taking some cargo to our destination. Here it is now," he added.

The cargo lift opened, and five massive crates were dumped onto the hangar floor. Each was the size of a dropship and covered with military labels and instructions.

A short figure peered out from the _Charon_'s ramp, and Hector spun around to face him. "Monty! Get the cargo stowed, and tell the 'droid to start rewiring the control circuits, we need another six hypersleep capsules!"

'Monty' scowled. "Our high an' mighty friends in the military certainly decided to give us a small load, didn't they?" He vanished again.

With an ominous groaning, the bottom of the ship opened out. Articulated arms extended down and out towards the crates, and torturously began pulling them inside the huge vessel's cargo hold.

"Well?" demanded Hector. "You coming or not? We've got a hellhole to escape."

Jake took one last look around the hangar, and then walked up the ramp.

There was a thump as the first crate landed in the _Charon_'s cargo bay.

***

CRUISER _MEI'SHA'DTE KCH-T'SHA'RE_ HAS LANDED IN SECTOR 204019

THREAT LEVEL CALCULATING

CALCULATION… COMPLETE

THREAT LEVEL DELTA ASSIGNED

ACTIVATING SENTRIES

AWAITING FURTHER DATA

***

"_Charon _Charlie X-ray Nevada Three Zero Niner, you are almost clear for launch. Please hold - we appear to have some trouble on the outer perimeter."

"Flight Control, this is _Charon_. Surely we should launch if there's trouble? I presume we're talking about toothy trouble?"

"_Charon_, shut your trap. You'll be cleared when we ascertain the problem."

There was tense silence on the bridge of the _Charon_. Jake stood in the background, the various crew of the ship attending to their tasks.

A dull boom penetrated the starship's hull, and Hector looked up, startled. A faint glow was visible in the distance. Dark specks, barely visible against the sky, dived towards the ground, tracer fire spitting.

The fighters pulled up again, and another boom resounded.

"Bombs," said Holly quietly to Jake. "Those attack flyers only have two each. There must be a lot of bugs."

There was deep rumble from nearby, and a large shape appeared over the walls of the docking bay. One of the military ships had launched.

"Flight Control, this is _Charon_ –"

"Can it!" Flight Control interrupted. "Priority vessels are being given permission to leave, the last thing we want is a mid-air collision!"

More shapes were lifting off, and it was just possible to hear the crack of infantry weapons.

Time was running out.

There was a sudden scream over the comms channel. An assault rifle chattered, but the sound was obliterated by the hideous screech by an Alien.

"Flight Control?" demanded Hector. "Flight Control, respond!"

There was no response.

The Captain flicked several switches, and the _Charon_ shook. With a nasty grinding sound, the ship lifted, straining against gravity.

Jake looked out of the porthole. Black shapes could be seen swarming over the perimeter and control buildings.

Nothing followed them as the _Charon_ pulled away from the surface. The odd thought that they were the last people on Earth struck Jake.

Had been the last people on Earth.

"That's it," Hector announced. "Autopilot locked in. We'd better get to the hypersleep capsules, we'll be entering E-space soon. Trust me, you do not want to be awake for that. Does weird things to your brain."

Jake left the bridge. All would be forgotten on this new planet.

Nothing could be worse than being trapped on Earth.

***

Waking from hypersleep is never a pleasant experience, but years of experience had made Hector used to it. He blinked, clearing his bleary eyes, and looked over the control panel installed above his capsule.

He frowned, and tapped out a request.

The sounds of waking from his passengers and crew made him look up, but only briefly.

The information that could not possibly be correct blinked at him from the cracked display.

"That's impossible…" he breathed.

"What?" asked Jake, leaning on his capsule and wondering whether to be sick.

Hector shook his head. "I'll check the bridge. With this circuitry, who knows what mistakes it's making?"

A scream echoed through the ship, and the sleepy crew froze.

Anigel ran into the chamber. Her left hand was stained with blood, and her expression was a picture of absolute terror.

Artemis ran to her sister, a confused, hard look in her eyes, daring the universe to hurt either of them. Jake followed more slowly. The last time he had seen any of the Gearing family like this was… when they'd first appeared.

He felt his stomach clench as a dreadful certainty that someone was dead filled him. He glanced around the room, and realised that Thomas was missing.

Hector was apparently smart enough to come to the same conclusion. All he said was "Where?"

Anigel forced out what might have been the words 'cargo bay' through the sobs.

Hector silently pulled his belt on, checked the pistol on it, and left for the cargo bay. Jake followed. He already knew what he would see there, but he followed nevertheless.

The limp body on the floor of the bay only confirmed his fears. Ragged, bloody holes were torn in Thomas' chest and neck, and a pool of blood to one side suggested that he had been rolled over. From the back, it must have looked like he was just asleep.

Hector leaned over the corpse and drew the pistol. "Now we have two mysteries," he said grimly.

"What's the other?" asked Jake. He kept his distance from the body; he'd seen plenty of death in the past few weeks, but there was no point in tempting his queasy stomach further.

Hector looked up. "The fact that we're fifty light-years from our destination in the middle of nowhere."

Jake stared at him.

"You're kidding," said Hukken from behind him. "You have _got_ to be kidding."

"Unless the damn circuitry's fried – which I admit is possible – then no, I'm not," said Hector testily. "I don't know how, but the entire course is wrong. There is no way that the computer could have screwed up that badly of its own accord, the number of tests we ran on it prior to launch. In fact, out of the whole ship, the navigation circuits are probably the most stable components. We've been sabotaged."

"How?" said Hukken. "And more to the point, _why_?"

"How should I know?" the Captain barked. "We're not carrying anything useful except these crates, and what would be the point in sabotaging the drives if they wanted us to take equipment somewhere?"

"You're assuming it's the military?" asked Jake.

Hector gave him a look. "Who else would it be? They were the only others left on the bloody planet. There are probably pockets of poor sods who got left behind, but anyone with sense that was near the spaceport had already left."

"The other question is what killed Thomas," said a new voice.

Holly walked forward to look at the body. "Could be a bug," she continued, "but there's very little damage apart from the obvious. An Alien would have torn him to bits and eaten him, or taken him alive."

"Gunshots?" suggested Jake.

"Possible," said Hector thoughtfully. "A low calibre shot at point blank range might do this damage. It's not any ammunition pattern I've ever seen, though."

"Or maybe whatever was in the crates," said Hukken from behind one of them.

"What do you… oh," said Jake.

The casing on the side of the container had retracted to reveal a massive internal space. The walls were extraordinarily thick, over a metre, but the cavernous space within could still comfortably hold a military dropship.

The walls were faintly luminescent, but apart from that, it was completely empty.

"A stasis container," said Hukken grimly. "I've seen them before. Used to transport volatile material or living organisms. Impossible to break from within, and plays with the time flow to prevent anything from happening. The walls are that thick to store the batteries and stasis field generators. The control panel says that the batteries have been used recently. Something was inside this container, and someone released it. Or them."

"So let me get this straight," said Hector. "Our course has been sabotaged so that we're in the middle of nowhere. A member of the crew has been killed by unknown means. One of the crates that the military wanted us to transport was a stasis container. And whatever was in the crate has been released. Anyone care to put that kettle of fish together?"

There was silence.

"Then let's get to the bridge. There might be some answers there." Hector sighed. "I guess if there _is_ some murderous thing on the loose here, it'll mean a quick death rather than a slow one."

Jake's mind assembled the statement and its implications. "What's wrong with the ship?" he demanded.

The Captain didn't say anything for a while. "I might be wrong," he admitted finally, "but the power plant simply won't hold out to get us to civilisation. It was one of the last components, something we bought simply to get us to our destination with a little to spare. It'll break down long before it gets us to safety. Then we'll be stuck in the middle of deep space, freezing to death and sucking carbon dioxide."

"Should we get everyone back into the hypersleep capsules then?" asked Jake. Desperation was gnawing at his self-control. _No, not here. Not after all this. Can't die here!_

"Those things only save time for the occupant," Hector replied. "The overall power drain would be about the same for if we were up and awake. They were invented to make long-distance FTL jumps more bearable." They had reached the bridge, and he sat down at the helm controls.

Hukken leaned forward. "What are you doing?"

"Pulling up the logs. I want to see if the computer really was sabotaged."

The screen bleeped plaintively, and produced the results.

Hector sat back in the chair and whistled quietly. "That's two questions answered. The computer did screw up on the headings, but it screwed up on _someone else's_ headings. Wherever we were meant to go, we didn't arrive correctly. And the other thing is that the hypersleep countdowns were fiddled with. Thomas' capsule was set to open some time before ours, which explains how he managed to get to the cargo bay so quickly. He didn't."

"The question is why?" Hukken mused.

The short crewman only referred to as 'Monty' poked his head onto the bridge. "The crates'll only open to one of the crew," he remarked. "They needed a fingerprint authorisation. Captain, we've got two hours of FTL time if we start now."

"Which won't get us anywhere," Hector replied. He sounded crushed. For all his apparent resignation to the _Charon_'s poor state, he must have held a small hope that he had been wrong.

Monty left.

"Where's Holly?" asked Jake suddenly.

"Here," she said, walking around the corner onto the bridge. There was an oddly animated feel to her actions, as though she had received good news.

"A xenomorph killed Thomas," she said.

Or perhaps the threat of certain death provided a boost after months of possible death.

"How do you know?" asked Hukken. The scientist was suddenly breathing hard.

"I looked carefully at the wounds," Holly replied. "The chest was a blunt force, but the neck… there were little incisions at the top and bottom of the hole that suggest teeth. Very small teeth."

"Inner jaws," said Hukken, realising where she was going.

"Exactly. What weapons do we have?"

Hector barked a laugh. "Weapons? _Charon_ was bound for a peaceful mining colony. Beyond a few hunting rifles and mining lasers, we've got nothing. Certainly nothing that can take on a xenomorph."

"Then… look, the bugs are thick, right? They chase anything that looks like food. If we can lure them into the cargo airlock, then blow them out…"

[An interesting plan, Miss Chance.]

The words cut straight into their minds with a sound like knives scraping metal, bypassing the ears entirely. The sheer inhumanity of the 'sound' made Jake flinch.

With a graceful slowness, a huge black shape unfolded from the tall ceiling and dropped to the ground a few metres away. Jake glanced up and saw the twisted remnants of the air vent panelling above.

It was only a glance, though. The sight of the epitome of all their fears standing in the middle of the embodiment of their hopes was like a huge weight crushing him.

[It wouldn't work, though.] The drone advanced, and a strange, impossible idea entered Jake's mind... that it was the _Alien_ speaking...

Hector's hand strayed towards the pistol on his belt, and there was a blur of motion as the Alien leapt forward and flicked out its tail stinger to rest against his throat. Hector froze, and slowly removed the hand.

[Good. You learn fast.] The drone retracted its tail. [The question is, how fast?]

"Aliens can't talk..." whispered Holly.

[I... we... are different. You must trust me when I say that your lives are on a knife-edge. It is solely because of me that you continue to live. The rest of the hive has no such wishes for your continued good health.] The black domed forehead rotated to look towards the figure of Hukken – the only figure, Jake realised, that was completely calm. [We may be tough, but we still need the power from the ship's core. Some have suggested that you should be eradicated to save power. I have no wish for this to occur. Ask him,] the drone said, flicking a clawed finger towards the scientist.

There was a collective rotation to look at Hukken, who nodded slowly. "That I believe. I thought there was something left of the real you when we met in that office." He laughed mirthlessly. "I always knew that I'd see your lot again. Sins of the past return to haunt me."

The drone did not respond to the comment. [The Queen will not ignore me, but if I cannot guarantee your passivity, I cannot guarantee your safety.] He cocked his head to one side, bird-like, and then backed off. [Ask your friend whether you should trust me. You might hear an interesting tale. I have been called to... quell... some of your compatriots.] With a blur of black, coiled power, the drone was gone.

Hector turned to look at the scientist, who was still smiling in a glazed way. "Well?" he asked quietly.

Hukken sat down heavily.

"Well, Doctor?" demanded Hector harshly. "Do you have something to say? _Do_ you know something about that... aberration?"

The scientist looked up and met the Captain's eyes. "I suppose I have no choice. God knows I'm not proud of it... but yes, I know of these Xenomorphs." He paused. "I helped to create them."

There was shocked silence.

"Nine months ago," Hukken said musingly. "That's when it all started. I was a biologist trying to fit in with a hospital dealing with the casualties of the war against the xenomorphs. A transfer order came through, military authorisation and all from a General G. Gorson, and I was moved to a set of laboratories that I'd never heard of before. All I was told was that I had been given the rank of second-in-command of 'Project Blackstar', under a scientist named Haines. Things picked up quickly from there..."


	3. Origin

The doors opened, and General Gorson stepped into the lab.

Haines looked up and smiled the smile of someone awaiting praise. "General! What a surprise! You should have informed me that you were visiting!"

Gorson waved the comment aside. "Enough pleasantries, Doctor. I'm here for a progress report, and can't stay long. The bugs have hammered into our defences badly, and I'm taking advantage of a lull in the action."

"I can do more than give you a report, General!" If he had had a tail, Haines would have been wagging it frantically. "Allow me to take you on a tour of our work. This way, please."

The laboratories of Project Blackstar were like labs everywhere had been since the mid twentieth century; white walls and harsh lighting. Of course, few labs had regular checkpoints, complete with five-man teams of soldiers. Their job was both to keep people out, and to keep things in.

"The government has been putting a lot of funding into this, Haines," said Gorson. "What I see had better be damn good, or someone may be tempted to pull the plug. Most of the high-ups think it would be better to spend the cash on weapons and equipment than a science project that is unlikely to have any great effect on the hives."

"Oh, it's good, General. We've made more progress with the xenomorphs than all the other studies of them put together. Mostly by blind luck, admittedly, but progress nonetheless." They came to a tall observation window, and Haines gestured through it.

The chamber beyond was massive. Here and there sections of metal were visible, but it was mostly covered by the Alien resin.

"Very pretty," said Gorson snidely.

Haines pointed through the window again – and Gorson breathed in sharply.

A section of the resin that he had thought was merely projecting a lot was something much more dangerous.

Perhaps sensing the gaze of the two humans, the Queen shifted and turned from her hiding place. The jaws parted in what was clearly a shriek of defiance.

"The sheer amount of armour around the nest sound-proofs it," Haines noted. "Currently we have thirty drones, four praetorians, and the Queen herself. All… enhanced."

"I've seen plenty of drones hide in the walls, but a Queen… why doesn't she have an egg sac? And what do you mean, 'enhanced'?"

Haines' happy expression faded. "We're not entirely sure, on the first count. We removed some eggs for study, and she stopped laying soon afterwards. Maybe it is something to do with your latter question. You see, various attempts to tame the xenomorphs before have always failed due to their basic stubbornness. We thought that if we could alter their minds on the genetic level… the result is a new breed, possibly even a new species, of the creature. The main change was a drastic increase in basic intelligence; now, even the drones are on par with an average human. Praetorians exceed that, and Queens probably hit genius level. The last was quite a risk, I think, but unavoidable. The DNA for their brain structures was all mixed up for the three. Other changes include an increase in strength and speed… they've basically been upgraded in all their basic statistics."

Gorson looked at him coldly. "So not only do you have a fully functioning hive, you have a fully functioning, stronger than normal, _highly intelligent_ hive."

"Security has been our first interest with the whole project, General," Haines replied. "Only I have the access code to open up the nest. The walls are three metres thick at their thinnest point, and highly acid resistant. Below the floor level, there is an industrial-scale incinerator. With the press of a switch, the entire hive can be crisped. And everyone registered as staff in the facility has the ability to terminate them, should it come to that."

"And your results?"

A new figure joined them at the window. "Ah, Hukken. General Gorson, may I present Doctor Edward Hukken, my second-in-command. He's in charge of the hive and everything directly connected to it."

"Pleased to meet you, General," said Hukken politely. "And to answer your question, they are of little practical use. You see, although our Beta-strain xenomorphs are quick learners, they are highly independent. Impossible to train."

"Explain."

"They will still attack a human at any opportunity. We've been able to mitigate that; they quickly learned to recognise our weapons and their capabilities, and they've never tried a head-on attack. But if you turn your back to them…"

"They recognise our weapons?"

Hukken nodded unhappily. "And they probably know each and every gun's abilities as well as one of your marines, sir. We've lost five good men due to little slips; someone wandering out of flamethrower range, things like that. We've stopped sending people into the hive entirely now. It simply wasn't safe, given the fact that we didn't know where they were until we were inside."

Gorson snorted. "You didn't install cameras? Bit of an oversight, don't you think?"

Hukken gave him a pained look. "We had thirty to begin with. But… when we were starting out and the Xenomorphs were more docile – learning about us, in retrospect – we took one out of the nest into another area for observation. I can only assume that it caught a glimpse of the camera feeds. All that we know is that in a matter of minutes, every camera in there was destroyed. Any attempt to put more in has resulted in the replacements also being destroyed. They'd worked out what they look like. Then we tried disguising them; same result. They're either bloody suspicious or bloody clever, and possibly both."

Gorson's expression had been one of increasing horror throughout the narrative. "Surely this ability to learn is more than enough reason to terminate them all now," he said silkily, taking off his shades and looking intently at the two scientists.

"As I have already said, General, nothing could escape from there without a small nuclear warhead," said Haines soothingly. "Besides, their termination could have negative effects on our other experiment. This way, if you please."

They moved in silence through Blackstar's winding corridors until they came to a small control room. Several soldiers and technicians were scattered across the room, and in the walls were a dozen heavy security doors.

Haines moved over to the central control station, and stabbed a finger at a camera display. "May I introduce RES One," he said proudly.

The feed showed a drone curled in a foetal position in a small cell-like room.

Gorson looked at Haines blankly.

"RES One was the first – and as of yet only – subject to have been injected with the retrovirus Tricytosine one-nine-four epsilon," said a new voice. "Only two days ago, that was a human."

"Ah, Doctor Kail. General Gorson, this is Doctor Elizabeth Kail, one of the main scientists who developed Tricytosine one-nine-four epsilon, and our resident expert on xenomorph behaviour."

Kail nodded briefly to Gorson, who was frowning faintly. "Aren't retroviruses used for curing genetic diseases and cancers?" he asked.

Kail smiled faintly. "That's the commercial use for them, yes. You see, a retrovirus effectively changes DNA according to a preset pattern. There are thousands of natural ones that have vital little functions in keeping life running. When we were able to crack the secrets of them, we started using them to modify damaged genes in cancer sufferers. Tricytosine one-nine-four epsilon is a much more complex beast; instead of changing a few strands of DNA, it's rewriting over three-quarters of the human genome to create a full-grown Beta-strain xenomorph. And a side-effect of this process is that the mind… the _human_ mind… remains."

"This, General, is the future. The future of Blackstar, the future of warfare, the future of _humanity_," said Haines excitedly. "No more dangerous games to try and tame the creatures. Imagine… an army of xenomorphs driven by human intelligence, following your orders. The Alpha-strain would be wiped out with ease."

Gorson didn't seem impressed. "So if he isn't a bug, why's he inside a cell?"

Haines' enthusiasm drained and was replaced by embarrassment. "Unfortunately, RES One is… not entirely cooperative."

"Not cooperative!" Kail laughed mirthlessly. "General, he didn't volunteer for the process. He was just some kid we picked up off the street who had no idea what we were doing. No wonder he's attacked everyone who's gone near him."

"So how do you know he's still got a human mind?"

She shrugged. "He talks to us sometimes. Telepathically. Whether that's another side-effect of the retrovirus or simply that the hive don't want to speak to us, he certainly communicates."

"Can he hear us now?"

She nodded. "Though whether he's really asleep or just faking it, I don't know."

[Faking, on this occasion.]

Gorson flinched.

"It takes some getting used to," Haines whispered. On the camera screen, the drone unfolded and looked straight at the camera. Now that it was no longer curled up, Gorson could see that it/he was bigger than any drone he had ever seen before. Haines' 'enhancements', no doubt.

"What these people did to you was wrong, son," Gorson said in his best rallying-the-troops voice, "but they meant you no harm. You're the first of a new generation of warriors, warriors to keep humanity safe. You should be honoured."

[Spare me,] came the reply, a dose of acid injected into the scraping tones. [Your scientist friends have been practising that rhetoric ever since I changed. Do you have anything else to say?]

The General was taken aback by the reply. In two decades of command, he'd never been spoken to like that.

"You realise that your hostility and new abilities makes you a security risk," he said, his voice hardening. "You may have to be terminated."

[Do as you wish.]

The drone curled up again, clearly uninterested in further conversation.

Haines shrugged helplessly. "I apologise, General. He's always like that."

Gorson sighed. "Have you begun asking for volunteers for further tests? We'll be able to ascertain whether or not that attitude problem is a result of the virus then."

"I was hoping that that was where you would come in, General. I'm sure there are soldiers out there who would be willing to help."

Gorson nodded slowly. "Very well, Doctor Haines. I'll look into it. My congratulations. I was beginning to think that Blackstar was a waste. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, we've been working on the information that we've gathered from the hive to improve our weapons and tactics…"

Gorson and Haines left, with Hukken tagging along behind. Kail was left in the holding station with her thoughts.

And the thoughts of another.

[I don't think either of us liked him much, did we?]

Kail opened up her mind as he had shown her. _No, not really,_ she thought. _But I don't like the military much anyway._

He extracted the thoughts, and chuckled.

A flash of irritation ran through her mind. _Why me?_ she demanded. _You could have spoken to anyone. You could have chosen anyone._

[Doctor, of all the people I have met in this little prison of mine, you are the only one with any sort of curiosity. Any other would have pushed me aside, or spoken to others about our little conversations. I knew that you wouldn't because you would be curious about me.] He paused. [That sounded egocentric, but you know what I mean. I was transformed into something feared by all and imprisoned without any chance of contact. I _had_ to speak, to have a… a friend, or I would be driven mad by loneliness. Loneliness made all the worse by constant company.]

_The hive?_ Kail inquired without thinking, and cursed her inquisitiveness silently. He'd judged her well.

She sensed his amusement briefly, and then he became serious again. [Yes. Their minds swim around me and mine swims around theirs like a shoal of fish. But I feel like the ugly duckling. I stand out with my human thoughts.]

_What's it like?_ He had not spoken of the hive before, and she burned to know more.

[You would not understand. I wouldn't have before the change.] He was silent for a while, and she moved towards the door.

[Wait!]

She stopped. _What? I don't need to be here for us to talk._

[I have to show you something.] His 'voice' was hesitant, reluctant. As though the choice of this showing had not been his.

Her stomach lurched. If it hadn't been his choice, then only one creature could have made it. _What has the Queen done? What does she want?_

[I'm sorry.]

She blinked, and the world spun.

Anger. Pain. Hunger. Fear. Emotions flooded through her, and behind it all, a great presence orchestrated the symphony of feeling.

For a brief moment, Kail understood how a wolf in a zoo felt. The world was out there, but she was trapped. Trapped, and feared by the trappers. Wild urges to kill the weak pink creatures that had enslaved her and her children overwhelmed her for a moment, quickly followed by powerlessness.

She fought back, little strands of her pushing away the onslaught, trying to assert herself as Elizabeth Kail, not a nameless Alien Queen.

It abruptly lessened. She felt the pulse of a third mind; one that she recognised. It too spoke in raw meaning, but it was confused and meaningless to her.

The Queen withdrew from contact, and it was like being able to breathe again after a long dive. The world steadied itself, and Kail looked around to see the various men and women in the room looking at her, concerned.

"I'm fine," she said. "Just a little dizzy. I think I need some sleep." She left, heading for her quarters. Not to sleep – she knew that that maelstrom of emotion would haunt her nightmares – but to be alone.

[I'm sorry,] he said again.

She angrily closed her mind.

[You can't shut me out, you know. If you don't want to respond, fine, but you still need to hear this. The Queen shared her feelings with you. That is how we all feel. Even me. When I look through the windows of my cage and see people, I feel terrible hunger. Someone will slip up, Kail. No one's ever successfully caged the xenomorph. Do you want those feelings unleashed, with nothing to stop them?]

_Shut up!_

[Of course you don't. No human would, but you in particular don't. You wouldn't hurt a fly, Elizabeth. You hate Haines' guts, you despise Hukken as the coward he is and Gorson gets on your nerves, but you don't want to see them hurt.]

_Of course I don't. Get to the point._

[Someone will slip up, and the hive will cut loose. Unless I can persuade the Queen to hold them back. I don't want anyone hurt either, but I want freedom more. If our escape is accidental, slaughter is unavoidable. If it is intentional… plans can be made. We can leave all this behind.]

_What's this got to do with me?_

[You know very well,] he snapped, patience fraying. He softened. [I know this isn't an easy choice for you. Release me, and I give you my word that bloodshed will be kept to a minimum. Earth is already lost. What does one more hive matter?]

_I'm not that crazy! You're just a drone. The Queen wouldn't listen to you._

[You'd be surprised.]

He withdrew from her mind, leaving her to her thoughts. Another replaced hers in his consciousness, if She ever really left him.

_[__She's thinking about it,] _he said, answering the unspoken question._ [You really shook her up back there.]_

_[She survived,]_ was the cool response. _[As I knew she would. If she agrees, do you think you are ready, little Shadow?]_

_[Of course.]_

He winced as She sliced into his mind. _[Are you truly ready, once-prey? You have joined into the hive. You are one of many, and your duty is to it. You stand out from the other drones; you think more like a praetorian, but do not think that gives you independence. If you are released, you must do whatever is necessary for us all to escape.]_

_[I know my duties,]_ he snapped. _[I joined your service willingly. It is because of you that I distance myself from the humans here. I am ready.]_

Laughter came to him across the link. _[You have certainly grown since I first felt your presence, confused and afraid. Time will tell how much. Remember, little Shadow, that you will soon have to make a choice about what you really are.]_ She faded to a mere background hum.

Shadow. He sighed, the sound coming out as a faint hiss. That had been Her first gift to him. A new name. A way of detaching himself from what he had lost and bonding himself to the hive. It had worked, in some strange way. He no longer even remembered his old name. It didn't matter. That person was dead.

It was an honour, really. Drones didn't have names. One drone was much the same as another, so differentiating them made no sense. Only praetorians and Queens had any sort of individuality and personality to them.

Another reason for feeling like the ugly duckling.

He drifted off towards dormancy, a state that was both more and less than true sleep – something that xenomorphs did not do. While dormant, his senses remained acute, but injuries regenerated faster and time seemed to speed up.

Hours passed like minutes. Scientists and soldiers came and went.

His mind split open with abrupt agony, and dormancy faded. Some sort of clarity reached him, and the realisation came that it was not his pain, but another's…

***

Haines' face was a frozen mask of disbelief and horror.

"How is this possible?" he demanded finally.

"Your Tricytosine one-nine-four epsilon isn't as perfect as you thought, I suspect," said Gorson in dangerously calm tones.

They looked at the camera feeds of the remains of the ten volunteers provided by the General. Eight showed hideous fusions of human and xenomorph biology, the fatal results of the basic incompatibility of the two species. The ninth was also dead, shot after it had begun mindlessly attacking everything in sight. Only the sixth resembled RES One.

"Doctor, this was always a risk," said Kail sadly. "We're not curing a few cancer tumours here. Humans and xenomorphs are fundamentally different. As for that one," she continued with a gesture at the ninth, "who knows? We know next to nothing about how the mind works, or why it remained in RES One and Seven."

"Are you saying that you didn't test this wonderful stuff of yours?" interjected Gorson.

Kail looked at him coolly. "How would you suggest we do that? Tissue samples all converted acceptably. There's only so far you can take that. We're still in the testing stage."

"Let's leave the recriminations for later," suggested Hukken. "We have one success, at least, and he's friendly. Let's move him to another location where we can begin making some studies of the effects of the virus."

"Very well," said Gorson heavily. "But until you can guarantee Tricytosine one-nine-four is has been improved dramatically, you shall receive no more test subjects from me. You may in fact have to suspend operations, given how close the hives are getting. Earth is a dead loss – that's the general consensus."

Haines pressed several controls, and one of the cell doors retracted. "Seven, we'd like you to accompany us to the labs so that we can run some tests."

The drone moved out of the cell. The soldiers instinctively gripped their weapons a little tighter as RES Seven nodded, and moved out of the door after Haines and Gorson. Hukken took the rear, and gestured for the soldiers to follow.

Kail looked at the central station with growing anxiety. If she wanted to agree to One's deal, there would never be a better opportunity. No soldiers and only three technicians in the room.

She sensed his mind watching hers, but he didn't say anything. She remembered the screaming hunger for blood, death and vengeance that the Queen had showed her.

She pressed five keys, and pressed her hand into the palm scanner.

There was a growl of machinery, and Shadow leapt from his cell like a demon rising from hell. The tail darted out once, twice, three times, and the technicians crumpled senseless to the floor.

"I'm trusting you," said Kail quietly. "Don't let me down."

[No promises,] Shadow replied sadly. [Go. Pray that we don't meet again.]

He watched her go. Guilt welled up at manipulating her, but was promptly crushed. He was Alien now. Any human was either a threat or a tool.

***

Haines looked at the recording in silence. When Kail released the drone, his fists clenched, but no other response was forthcoming.

The tape ended. "How long ago did this occur?"

"Five minutes at the most, sir," said the technician. "I called you the moment I saw it." And you took your time about coming, was the unspoken addition.

Haines flicked an eye towards the medlab where RES Seven, Hukken and Gorson were, blissfully unaware of the disaster that had just occurred. If Gorson's superiors heard of this, Blackstar was surely finished. The General had said it himself: people were already questioning the wisdom of a project that not only dealt with xenomorphs, but also enhanced them.

"I want Dr. Kail found immediately and brought to my office. Issue a base-wide alert to all security personnel, but keep it quiet. It's just one xenomorph. We can deal with one, no need to cause panic. Oh, and ask Dr. Hukken to come to my office as well when General Gorson has left."

"Yes, sir."

Haines left the monitoring station and headed purposefully towards his office. Gorson was already preparing to leave; a report of a large incursion had shortly preceded the technician's message. Good. If he didn't know of it, his superiors wouldn't. Blackstar had to survive. There might be danger and enemies everywhere, but he'd let the project be abandoned or given to another over his dead body.

All around him, marines and other soldiers were casually readying themselves for battle. Their actions fed fuel to the flames of his paranoia, but he forced himself to remain calm.

His 'office' was a converted operating theatre from the days that Blackstar Laboratories had been a hospital. The conversion was not very complete; the operating table still remained and the lighting was harsh, but he liked it that way. It could be surprisingly comfortable in times of stress.

The door opened, and Lieutenant Brome entered closely followed by Kail and a bewildered Hukken.

The last was the first to speak. "Doctor? What's going on?"

Haines stabbed a finger towards Kail. "She sold us down the river, that's what. She released RES One."

Hukken stared. "Surely not. She's not that stupid."

"It wasn't stupidity," Kail burst out. "He promised no one would be hurt!"

Haines gave her a contemptuous look. "He was correct. Brome's men will deal with him easily, won't they, Lieutenant?"

Brome looked uneasy. "Sir, the situation isn't a good one. Even a normal drone can cause a lot of damage, and this is far from a normal drone. You should alert all base personnel."

"Should?" Haines' eye twitched. "I'm in command, Brome!"

The Lieutenant looked puzzled. "Of course, sir."

"Don't 'of course, sir' me!" Haines snarled. "I was put in command here by General Gorson, and no one can take that from me."

"I'm not trying to, sir," said Brome rigidly, clearly not picking up on the scientist's building psychosis.

The words calmed Haines down somewhat, and he returned his attention to Kail. "Why? That's all I want to know."

Her lip trembled slightly. She had picked up on the tone, and knew that the man before her was on a knife-edge.

"Well? Out with it, girl!"

She whispered something.

"I didn't hear that!"

"They were going to get out anyway," she repeated.

Haines stared… and the full import of her words hit him. "That son of a bitch wants to release the hive?"

She nodded.

"And you still let him out?" the other shrieked. He drew his standard-issue pistol, and clubbed her across the face with the butt. There was a crunch of cartilage as her nose broke, and she whimpered slightly.

Brome started forwards. "Sir, you're overreacting. RES One can do limited harm."

"You just said that the situation wasn't good! Stop lying to me, Lieutenant!"

"That limited harm is quite a bit, admittedly, but it cannot release the hive. Only you can do that. You should leave the facility until One has been apprehended, though."

"Enough with the should!" Haines yelled, and shot him in the head twice.

There was dead silence.

"What are you looking at, Hukken?"

Hukken cowered. "Sir, you just shot him!" he mewled. "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"He challenged my authority to the point of mutiny," Haines replied coldly. "Now, Elizabeth, tell me the real reason why you let One out."

"I told you!"

"Bullshit. No one would have let him out knowing that he'd defected to the hive like that. No one sane. You're a bug cultist, aren't you? You worship them. The thought of one snapping your ribs as it burst out from you sends you to sleep, doesn't it?" A mad gleam appeared in Haines' eye as he spoke.

Kail could only back away, shaking her head.

"Fine. You love your Aliens so much?" He clubbed her again, and she was knocked sprawling into the operating table. With terrifying speed, he grabbed her wrist and strapped it into the table's restraints.

"Sir?" asked Hukken weakly. "What are you doing?"

Haines fired over his shoulder, the bullet embedding itself a few inches away from his second-in-command. "I lead here, Hukken," he spat, tying Kail's other wrist to the table. "I don't have to explain myself to anyone." He moved over to his desk, and picked up a large syringe.

Kail yanked helplessly at the restraints as he advanced. "Do you know what this is? The first batch of Tricytosine one-nine-four epsilon that you created. I kept it as a memento of success. But what better way to use it than to give it to its creator?"

"Sir!" shrieked Hukken. "She'll become one of them! One rogue xenomorph is enough!"

Haines looked at Kail with a mockingly sad air. "She won't. Epsilon has such a low success rate. You can die happy in the knowledge that you did so in the aid of science, Dr Kail. After all, we've never seen what happens when someone receives an overdose of the virus, have we?"

He stabbed the syringe into her exposed arm, and injected the contents.

Kail's scream was like a solid wall of sound. Haines staggered back as her skin changed from human pinkie-white to jet-black, spreading out in a wave from the point of injection.

Bone structure changed leaving some areas of flesh limp and sagging, others taut and stretched. Skin split in places, and the blood that fell from the gashes slowly began to hiss and smoke. The eye sockets closed up and hair fell out in great clumps. Teeth elongated and sharpened, and the tongue sprawled out and became hollow before being retracted.

Her entire body seemed to stretch to fit the new proportions of the Alien, and clothing tore under the stress. The characteristic spines rose from her back, and the skin took on the texture and appearance of her new species.

The scream, which was no longer a scream but an utterly Alien shriek, died away, and Kail fell still. Where the human had been, a fully developed drone now lay.

Silence.

"And as for you…" said Haines, finally turning away from the body.

_The being slowly woke. She realised that the world looked different, and in a flash remembered the pain. What had happened before that? It was so difficult…_

"Sir, please!" begged Hukken. "I'd never do anything against you. What have I done?"

_She could hear something. What were they called? Voices? That sounded right. She recognised that voice. _

"You also just challenged my authority. Not as strongly as the late Lieutenant, but nevertheless, you did so. You don't think that I should be in charge. You want my position for yourself."

_Another voice. She recognised that voice as well. Anger blazed at the owner of the new voice, but she still couldn't remember why…_

"No! Please, sir, I'm loyal to you!"

_The voices belonged to people. She looked at herself, recognised the shiny, black shell. Not people like her. People with soft, white skin and red flesh and blood. The word 'human' floated through her mind. Yes, the speakers were human. And she was… Xenomorph. Yes. That was the word that attached itself to her kind._

_[Kail! Can you hear me?]_

_Another voice. This one in her mind, speaking in pure meanings. It seemed more natural than this human twittering. So wasteful. How could they communicate in a hunt? Silence is paramount in a hunt. The scraping tones soothed her._

_[I recognise your mind, once-prey. You have potential.]_

_Yet another voice, also in her head. As it came to her, a gentle background hum began in her mind, the feeling of minds brushing hers even if they did not speak. The voice was different from the other Alien, somehow. An image of a huge, six-limbed creature with a long, elaborate crest appeared in her mind. The word 'Queen' followed it. Some thought that was not entirely her own said, "I need a Queen…"_

_[I need a Queen…]_

_She said it out loud in her mind, knowing that it would reach those of her kind, almost for fun._

_[I can feel her mind and body. Her transformation was too quick. She is in shock.]_

_[It makes no sense! She would never agree to be given the retrovirus, even if circumstances were more normal; she was pacifistic!]_

_[If she is to survive in her new form, that is a trait that must be lost,]_ the Queen replied coldly. _[We live by blood, flesh and death.]_

_[I just don't understand… unless… Haines! You told me that his mind was fragile! Perhaps he did this…]_

_Haines. The word neatly attached itself to the voice that she hated. Did she know this… Haines?_

Haines looked at the pitiful figure in front of him. "Too late, Hukken. We're all dead. Thanks to her," he said, with a gesture at the operating table. "I might as well finish it right here."

Images flooded through her. Images of a human named Kail. It led up to the human being tied onto a table, and a serum of this… retrovirus being injected.

_It hit her. She was Kail. Haines was behind her. And there was nothing to stop her from taking revenge._

Hukken raised a quivering finger, and pointed at something behind Haines.

Haines opened his mouth to say something disparaging, and heard the squeak of tortured leather. With his heart in his mouth, he turned.

Kail tore the second restraint off effortlessly, and unfolded her full ten-foot long form. Xenomorph instinct screamed for warm flesh, and human mind didn't intend to stop them.

"Hukken? Help me…" mumbled Haines.

Some part of her argued that this was wrong. That violence never solved anything. The old, truly human Kail fought with the new hybrid mind that screamed for bloody vengeance, and lost.

She crouched, ready to pounce and kill, and felt herself stilled.

_[That one is needed alive.]_

Kail reached out into the swarm of zephyrs that was the hive mind. _[He is mine,]_ she replied coldly.

_[Kail, that man is the only being in the universe who can free the hive,]_ said the first mind-voice. She felt for information through the hive mind, and realised that it was what she had once known only as RES One. Shadow.

Her human side called for a vow of independence. The hive be damned. She was human, whatever she looked like, and could do what she liked.

That small demand forced aside the red haze of fury. _[Why should I help you? I released you, Shadow. That was enough. Enough blood on my hands.]_

_[Elizabeth, look at yourself. Feel the acid that courses through your veins. Look at your claws, and tell me that you honestly believe that this isn't your fight.]_

She raised her hand… the hand that was no longer a hand… and looked at it. The long claws slowly flexed in an utterly inhuman way. Her human side tried to protest that appearances weren't everything, that she was still human on the inside. Shadow had chosen the path of the hive, but it didn't mean that she had to.

_Blackness slipped out over her mind, the blackness of her new form. The Alien side spoke without words, and told her that without the hive, she was nothing._

_[I shall extract the access code from him,]_ she said finally. [Your sentence of death is postponed, Haines. The hive needs you. Tell me the access code to release it.]

Both scientists stared at her. "Elizabeth…" breathed Hukken. "You wouldn't… you wouldn't release them! You _couldn't_!"

She laughed mirthlessly. [You don't know what you've unleashed. Just a few minutes ago, you'd have been right. But now… you changed more than my body, Haines. I look at you, and I feel three things. A small part feels kinship, the kinship that any two humans feel towards each other. Another part feels anger, anger at what you did to me, anger at what you've created in the past months. But the largest part is raw hunger. The hunger of a xenomorph. Hunger that can only be sated by flesh and blood. I look at myself and I realise that I am part of the hive now. The access code.]

"No," said Haines calmly. The tone was belied by the fact that he was shaking uncontrollably. "I won't let you release them."

Kail moved forwards.

"And I don't believe you," he continued, sounding a little less confident now. "The Elizabeth Kail I know would never change that much. Posture all you like. And I can understand you being angry, but this isn't permanent! We created a way to change a human into a xenomorph: it's possible to do vice-versa! It's just a matter of time!" His voice rose to a shriek towards the end.

Her lips drew back in a hideous mockery of a smile. [Why would I want that?] Her claws flashed out, and blood spurted from the long cuts in Haines' stomach. He looked dumbly at the wound as she continued. [I look back on my old self and I feel scorn. She was weak. She disagreed with almost every decision you made, but never stood up to you. She's gone, and I have replaced her. Tell me how to release the hive.]

Haines made a frantic dash for the door, and was cut off easily. He looked up at the merciless apparition before him, and whimpered faintly. "Angels of death bring the only redemption. Override five nine four gamma five zero."

[Thank you.] She crouched for a lethal pounce – and the door opened. Four stunned marines looked inside, and raised their weapons.

Kail leapt for the airshaft and scuttled up it. [Your time will come, Haines… your time will come…]

Hukken recovered quickly. "Come on, men. We need to leave – this room isn't secure. Doctor?"

Haines seemed to wake, and made a run for the door with a final terrified look at the air vent.

One soldier sealed the room behind them, and then turned. "How did it get in? And where are Dr Kail and Lieutenant Brome?"

Hukken opened his mouth to say something, but Haines cut across him. "That _was_ Dr Kail. She overpowered us, shot Brome and used the retrovirus on herself before torturing me into revealing the hive release codes. I want a message sent to General Gorson immediately requesting reinforcements."


	4. Crash

The comms panel beeped plaintively.

"Hive ante-chamber, respond."

A hand stretched out towards it, the owner pulling himself up on a table to do so. A desperately waving finger connected with the intended control, and a two-way link was opened. "Sir…"

"Private, I want you to terminate the hive immediately," interrupted Haines. "They're too big a threat to remain alive."

"Sir… it's too late…"

There was a scream abruptly cut off, and then silence.

"Private? Respond, damn you!"

A soft clicking echoed around the room, as though plastic controls were being tapped by claws.

With a groan of taxed machinery, the massive airlock that led into the nest rumbled open. Alarms wailed as black shapes emerged into the pristine whiteness of Blackstar Laboratories.

At the other end of the facility, Haines froze at the distant sound.

"They're out," he muttered, and switched off the comms panel. "Corporal! What news of Gorson?"

"The General is on his way, sir. I've informed him of the situation, and he has a full APC of troops en route."

"And our defences?"

"We've got men in all the major chokepoints out of E-block. Sir, two drones have no hope of breaking through that." The soldier pointed to a large hologram that dominated the makeshift command centre at the entrance to Blackstar. Blue dots pulsed in little groups here and there on the schematic. "The moment any of them get attacked, we'll know about it even if they're killed before they can get a message out."

Haines shivered slightly. "Could the full hive break through them?"

The other shrugged. "Probably," he admitted. "If they get hit badly, they're under orders to fall back. But if the hive tries anything, their losses will be so heavy that they'll be destroyed by the time they get here."

A set of dots winked out, and Haines' heartbeat became a whine. "Tell that was a malfunction," he whimpered.

The corporal stared at the display. "I don't understand… how could they get wiped out that quickly? The air shafts are on a different system to E-block…"

Another group winked out, leaving three others.

The soldier hurried to the door. "I need to get out there. Something's wrong." He left Haines to his fears.

The door opened again almost immediately, and Haines jerked. Hukken walked through and slammed the door behind him.

"Doctor?" Hukken asked pitifully. "I… I couldn't stay out there. I needed to see that the defences are holding."

The comms opened. "All right, check in, men," came the voice of the corporal. "I want this channel open at all times. We need to make sure that… _incoming_!"

The rapid chatter of weapons fire echoed through the small room. There was a scream, several utterly inhuman screeches, and then silence. Another group of dots winked out on the hologram.

Hukken slowly backed away into a corner, shivering. Haines just stared into space.

"They're coming," he said.

The door opened, and both scientists started.

"Nice little mess you've created here," Gorson commented coolly.

Haines nodded gratefully, not caring about the ominous edge to Gorson's words. "But you can get us out of, General, I know it!" he said like an eager puppy.

More screams echoed over the comms, and another group of dots flashed and vanished.

Gorson stared at the display for a second, and then turned away. "This room isn't secure. I want you out in the main lobby. From there, we can organise some defences to contain them.

The last dots winked out on the monitor as they left.

***

_[Well planned,]_ said Shadow, looking around at the remnants of the soldiers and pushing down the slight regretful nausea.

Kail smiled back mentally. _[I knew that all those hours of studying the facility for potential weaknesses wouldn't go to waste. Though I never would have thought that I'd be exploiting them. Now I'm glad that I didn't point out to Haines that the walls between the airshafts weren't strong enough.]_

The two former-humans felt a wave of approval flow over them. _[Your differences have helped the hive,]_ the Queen said softly. _[I look forward to watching you develop. But this was only the first barrier.]_

Kail nodded instinctively, then remembered that the Queen could neither see nor understand the human affectation. _[Gorson will have arrived by now, no doubt. That man's no fool. There won't be any weaknesses to exploit against him, and the additional forces he will have brought make a head-on attack suicidal. If we are to escape Blackstar, a more subtle approach is required.]_

_[Find the weakness, and then strike at it,]_ the Queen replied thoughtfully. _[The strategy of the tail. Your mind feels like that throughout, little one; direct, but cunning. You serve the hive, mind and body. The human you once were is now dead. Serve well… Spiketail.]_

Kail stopped as the full import of these words hit her. But no, it was not Kail thinking… the Queen was right. Elizabeth Kail died in that room. She had been replaced by… _Spiketail_…

_[Thank you, Matriarch,]_ she said, emotions of pride and gratitude flooding through the link so strongly that the nearby drones looked up in slight confusion.

The Queen laughed. _[A small thing. Now go, my prey-children, and find the weakness.]_

_[As you say, Matriarch,]_ said Shadow. _ [You lead the way… Spiketail. You know this place better than I do.]_

She leapt off through the white corridors of Blackstar, and he followed in silence, waiting for her to speak.

_[What She said seemed so right…]_ Spiketail said finally. _[Kail is dead. And the name She gave me… that felt right as well.]_

_[That's how I felt, as well. The drones believe that a Queen can look into your soul and know who and what you are. Not in so many words, of course; the soul is a meaningless concept to their… our… kind.]_

_[How did you become Shadow?]_

Shadow laughed. [_She said that when She first felt my mind drifting through the hive, it was like a little shadow on the wall where none should be. That's what I've been all my life. The shadow where none should be.]_ The last sounded a little wistful.

Spiketail came to a halt. _[I sense them ahead.]_

Shadow reached out with his senses, and transmitted his agreement. _[Gorson brought quite a few. Looks like nearly forty humans and a couple of synthetics. Evenly spread out to cover all possible entrances.]_

Spiketail cursed. _[Plus the automated ceiling turrets. How are we supposed to deal with all that?]_

_[Maybe we don't have to. You've fitted into thinking like an Alien very quickly – far quicker than I did. But this is an instance where we need to think like humans…]_

***

[An impressive defensive position, General Gorson.]

Gorson swore, and spun. "They can see us!" he hissed. "Motion trackers!"

[Honestly, General, do you really think that you would be able to deal with us by looking for _motion_? How do you know that we didn't move out of sight before contacting you?]

"Never hurts to try all the possibilities," said Gorson, continuing to turn and holding his assault rifle steady.

[True. Let me get to the point: we're not particularly keen on taking on all that firepower. We have nothing against you. All we want is to get outside. Let us leave, and we'll leave you alone. On the other hand, if you do want to hold this out to the bitter end… you'll take losses as well. We might even win. This is a way to end it cleanly. Isn't that what we both want?] The voice paused. [How about two of us come down so we can talk about this face-to-face? With a guarantee of mutual safety, of course.]

Gorson considered this. He'd let a new Alien hive swarm out onto Earth over his dead body, but just talking… and besides, they might learn something important. "All right, Alien. Come out. But if you touch any of my men…"

[Likewise,] said the voice, with an almost visible grin.

The contact faded, and Gorson turned to his troops. "Men, we've got a pair of Aliens incoming. They're here to talk, not kill. If you see just the two of them, keep your distance but don't shoot. If more turn up, give 'em all a one-way ticket to hell!"

"Yes sir!"

"Sir! Over there!"

Gorson looked in the indicated direction. A pair of shadows had separated from the wall, and coalesced into a pair of Xenomorph drones.

He could feel a trickle of sweat run down his collar. He considered himself fearless, but the sheer size of these creatures was unnerving. He was used to the normal bugs, but these ones were a third as long again. The really disturbing part was that despite their large size, they moved with lethal agility.

[General,] said one of them. He couldn't tell which.

[Things have changed a bit since you opened Blackstar, General,] said the other with a snide tone that was 'audible' through the rasping tones. The rogue scientist, no doubt.

"Dr. Kail, I presume. And I'm afraid I don't know your companion's name…"

[Call me Shadow. What I was doesn't matter.]

[Perhaps we should go somewhere less exposed?] suggested Kail.

Gorson's face darkened. "So you can rip us apart in private?"

[If we stay here, what's to stop you from shooting us down right now?]

"You're in no position to dictate terms… Shadow. But to keep things civil, let's go into the office over there. Haines, Hukken, this way. And bring RES Seven."

The two drones moved tamely towards the room. Haines stared after them in mute terror.

"You don't need me there, sir!" he hissed, a pleading edge in his voice. "This is a military matter, surely!"

Gorson looked at him contemptuously. "This is your facility, Haines. Don't tell me you're scared of a couple of bugs. You've been working with them for months now."

The other whimpered. "You haven't been up close and personal with them."

Gorson looked at him for a few seconds, and then said in low, neutral tones, "As official military liaison to this facility, I'm _ordering_ you in there. Does that make you feel better?"

Haines nodded pitifully. Gorson looked up and saw the two xenomorphs waiting outside the office, a faintly amused air about them. He swore silently. First rule of negotiations: never show disunity. No matter. It wasn't as though it made a difference.

Hukken came over, closely followed by the towering figure of Seven. [Your orders, General?] the drone said quietly.

"Just be ready," Gorson replied, looking over Blackstar's only true success. He looked at the other two 'successes'. Seven seemed… smaller somehow. Less threatening.

Probably his imagination. Gorson walked over to the office, and gestured for Shadow and Kail to go in before following them in.

Haines shut the door behind them, and then crept into a corner as far away from Kail as possible.

"I'm listening," said Gorson harshly after a few seconds.

[We have nothing more to add,] said Shadow bluntly.

"Your deal is unacceptable," Gorson replied just as bluntly. "We have a superior position. You are correct that we want to end this as bloodlessly as possible, but unless you persuade me that there is a better way than this, the answer is no."

[What is your opinion, Dr. Haines?] Kail asked.

_Shit, they're better at this than I thought,_ thought Gorson irritably. _So much for not making a difference._

Haines hesitated, and then shook his head violently. "The General has my full confidence," he said.

All three xenomorphs tensed slightly.

"Perhaps we can come to an agreement, however," said Gorson smoothly, and the atmosphere relaxed. "Both of you have suffered at the hands of Blackstar, but we can make up for it. You are both human, whatever form you have. Both of you had the retrovirus forced on you, but you can be cured." Haines flinched – Gorson must have guessed what had happened in the lab. "Do you think that we would develop something like this without needed a reverse-treatment? Given a little time, you can both be restored. Why do you serve the hive? There is no future for you save horror and death."

[You want us join you in destroying the hive?] asked Kail.

Gorson sighed. "I want you to join us for your own sakes. What happens from there is as much or as little to do with you as wish."

There was silence.

[I think we have nothing more to say to each other,] said Kail.

Gorson's face darkened. "You decline?"

Kail spat, and acid melted into the table. [You don't understand, Gorson. We did not join the hive out of spite or vengeance. Blackstar could never be anything but a failure. You can take the xenomorph out of the hive, but you can't take the hive out of the xenomorph. Even one with the mind of a human. It's coded into our very being. Neither of us have any wish to be human again. Humanity is weakness. This… is freedom from that. From weakness. From fear. We will leave now. You will face us in battle soon enough.]

"Yes, you will…" Gorson whispered. "Fire."

With that, the three humans raised their carbines. Hails of metallic death streaked from the barrels. If they had had anything less than xenomorph reactions, Shadow and Spiketail would have died right there.

[You bastard!] Shadow shrieked. [We were _negotiating!]_

Gorson laughed cruelly. "You made your choice. You can't negotiate with a bug." A spray of fire found its mark, and Spiketail screeched as acid blood sprayed from her side.

"Seven, finish that one off."

RES Seven moved forward, claws at the ready. Spiketail got up, and leapt aside from a spray of fire from Haines.

[I told you that your time would come,] she hissed. She dived past Seven, who turned to give chase before Shadow's tail clubbed him backwards.

Haines squealed as the apparition of vengeance lunged forwards. The carbine clicked empty, and then Spiketail was on him. He managed one final scream before her inner jaws smashed through his left eye socket, killing him instantly.

Gorson swore. "Hukken, back out. Seven, you can take these two. Remember your training, marine!"

Hukken spun and began to run for the door. Spiketail was faster, and with a swing of her tail sent him flying headfirst into the wall. Gorson swore again, and closed the door.

Which just left the three xenomorphs. They paused, Spiketail on one side of Seven, Shadow on the other.

[You can't win,] Seven said finally. [You'll all be slaughtered like the animals you are.]

[Look who's talking,] Shadow replied.

Seven drew himself up. [I am a soldier of the United States Colonial Marine Corps. I serve mankind. How I do that is irrelevant. Now you will both die.]

He lunged for Shadow, perhaps sensing that he was the weaker opponent. Shadow backed down, flicking out his tail.

Spiketail pounced, screeching. There was a blur of claws, teeth and blood, and then the two separated, both looking the worse for wear.

Shadow moved in now, taking advantage of the lull. The combatants' claws flashed, and Shadow backed away, a huge gash in his side. Seven roared in triumph, moved in for the kill… and crashed to the ground, Spiketail on top of him.

There was a crack as her inner jaws hammered through the ex-marine's head carapacing, and then silence apart from the hissing of acid.

_[Thanks,_] said Shadow weakly. _[I thought that was it for a moment.]_

_[You distracted him earlier. We're even.]_ Spiketail looked towards the door and hissed. _[We're no closer to solving the problem of escape than we were before. Two dead scientists and one dead traitor, and we're separated from the hive.]_

And then she smiled slowly. _[As a former department head, I have the codes to access the security mainframe. Including the sentry turrets. Since Gorson was kind enough to invite us into their temporary headquarters… Blackstar is ours.]_

***

Hukken woke to screams.

The rapid thudding of various firearms seemed to come in time with the pounding of his headache. He opened his eyes, and saw that the room was empty save for the eviscerated form of a drone, and the corpse of Haines.

It had all gone wrong. Disconnected memories flashed through his mind; Haines' insanity and Kail's transformation… Gorson opening Blackstar… the hive's release…

Something hit the wall hard, yanking him back to reality. Blackstar was lost. If they had been winning, there would be no screams.

Survival was all that mattered now. Gorson's APCs would provide a means of escape.

Hukken opened the door and slipped through it. The lobby was a scene of chaos; only half a dozen marines remained standing against the Aliens. The rest were dead or dying, ripped open by xenomorph claws or the reprogrammed sentry guns.

The weapons went dry simultaneously, and the soldiers were engulfed in a wave of flashing claws and teeth.

Hukken exited Blackstar Laboratories just as the last scream was cut off. With the barrier between him and his nightmares, he ran towards the looming shapes of the APCs.

He stumbled through to the cockpit of the vehicle, slamming the panel that closed the rear doors. "Get us out of here, quick! I'm the only survivor!"

The pilot said, and did, nothing.

"Come on! They'll be after us any second!" He grabbed the man's shoulder and shook him.

And recoiled in horror as he felt the blood.

There was a faint scraping noise behind him, and Hukken spun, trying to draw a pistol that he didn't have.

[And so it ends,] hissed Spiketail.

The scientist looked up into the pitiless apparition. "Please, Elizabeth… what could I do to hurt you? You've escaped. What does one human matter?"

[My name is _Spiketail_,] she cut across him. [As for harm… hah! This isn't about you being a _threat_. This is you being capable of helping the hive, one way or the other. Probably as a host. There's enough flesh in the facility to allow everyone to gorge themselves. Relax,] she continued soothingly, [you won't feel a thing. Until it breaks out, of course.]

"There must be something I can do…" he whined. "Earth is dying. There are reports of hives turning on each other. I can give you an advantage. Just… just don't kill me! Access codes! I can give you the codes to hack into just about anything!"

Spiketail gave him a long, cool look. [Very well. I hate to think what your DNA would do to your child, anyway.]

Hukken reached for the keypad of the APC eagerly, but she stopped him. [Not that way. I have something more direct in mind. After all, we wouldn't want you to mistype those codes, would we?]

Hukken stifled a scream as she grabbed his head in a vice-like grip. He felt the raw, vicious power of her mind invading his, looking for the promised codes. Memories spilled through his mind and into hers, the man funnelling them as he realised that it was the only way he could survive.

The ordeal was over as suddenly as it began. Spiketail gave him one last look before leaving. [Pray that we do not meet again,] she said.

Hukken rose to his feet, and ran. He ran as he had never run before, faster than even his dash to the APCs. The feeling of having his mind ripped open chased him until he could run no more. Gasping for breath, he turned to look back. The lights were off in Blackstar, leaving it a dark hole in the view.

He turned towards the lights of the city centre, and walked towards them, leaving behind the darkness.

A poetic way of putting it, he thought.

***

"And that is my sorry tale," said Hukken with a twisted smile. "Two hundred men and women died there from Blackstar alone, and one of the key tactical forces controlling the fight against the hives was killed as well. And I survived. All because I didn't have the guts to stand up and die for the sake of my species. No doubt because of those access codes I gave to Kail... Spiketail... they were able to hack into spaceport security and stow away here. Am I right, Shadow?"

Everyone jumped, and soft laughter echoed through their minds from the drone. No one else had seen him return. [It was far from easy, but those codes helped,] he replied. [You've changed. The Hukken _I_ knew would never have told that tale, or at least not in that uncensored way.]

Hukken smiled again, and again there was no humour there. "Some events have a way of sticking in the mind and forcing you to go over them."

[There's hope for you yet. Hope for all of you, actually.] The drone moved forward and activated the helm control panel with surprising delicacy. [I had a little time to analyse possible solutions to our problem before you woke up, and there _is_ a way. But it is an option that you would never choose willingly; hence, we had to take control. There.] Shadow moved back.

Hector shifted around the drone, keeping as far away as possible, and glanced at the plotted course. "You're insane," he said instantly.

[I said you would never choose to do this willingly,] Shadow pointed out. [Do you have a better plan in mind, _Captain_?]

"The Kavash Nebula is a death-trap," Hector said bluntly. "If it's a choice between being ripped apart by you and losing ourselves in there, I choose the former."

"What's going on?" asked Jake.

Hector glanced at him. "An anomaly. This… _thing_ has plotted a course that takes us straight through it to a system on the other side. Out of the thirty-nine ships that have gone through it, thirty-seven have vanished without a trace. Those two survivors only mapped the outskirts. We'll be going through the heart."

[By your reasoning, it's death either way.] There was a subtle difference to this 'voice', suggesting that it had another owner. A feminine tinge, but not a little girl tone, more of a femme fatale one.

Another drone moved in through the main bridge entrance. Jake noted that both Shadow and the newcomer felt different to the drones he was used to. Those just… _were_. Shadow had an air of constant hesitation about the universe in general.

The newcomer was different again. It produced an atmosphere of barely suppressed aggression.

Spiketail.

Spiketail advanced towards Hector slowly as she continued, [But if you follow Shadow's plan, there is a chance that you will survive. Nothing is certain. Just like the fact of your death should you decide not to cooperate is not… certain…]

She lunged, grabbing the man. Her jaws snapped open, and her inner set shrieked towards his neck, stopping so close that it grazed his skin.

[Merely… likely…] she hissed. She retreated to the door and fell silent.

Jake thought that he'd never seen anything more terrifying than that silent figure.

_[Thank you, Spiketail,]_ commented Shadow irritably.

_[It worked,_] replied Spiketail. _[They were unsure. Now they are merely terrified of us. An improvement, I think.]_

"You leave us no choice," said Hector. His voice was level, but his pale features belied his true feelings about Spiketail's unsubtle message.

[Then get your crew back to the capsules,] replied Shadow, ignoring the faint 'I told you so' signals Spiketail was sending him. [And you, Captain, will complete the authorisation for this course. Time and power are short…]

***

Silence.

The crew had returned to their hypersleep capsules, and the hive was hibernating. Nothing breathed.

The computer chattered to itself, meaningless bleeps echoing through the bridge occasionally.

It discovered that the ship had entered a bubble in the nebula, clear of stellar gas and debris. After cross-referencing with its internal database, it concluded that the system within the bubble was not on record. Carefully storing the information, and giving the new system the tag of 'NMR-752', it continued to analyse the readings.

Closer to the system now. The computer noted that there were five planets, including one that appeared to be habitable. It analysed the atmosphere, and discovered that the planet was environmentally and ecologically active.

The computer stored the data, and then went back to analysing the local area.

It noted an irregularity within the E-space drives – a small imbalance in the power transfer matrix.

It corrected the irregularity, noting that the drain on the power core from the drives had increased slightly. It recalculated the maximum possible range, and compared it to the distance to the target. The distance was still within range.

Another irregularity attracted its attention. The ship was slowing. If the Charon went below a certain critical velocity, it would lose velocity and need to reactivate the E-space drives from scratch. Accordingly, the computer diverted more power to the drives to maintain speed.

Power drain increased rapidly. A tortured whining echoed through the ship as the power transfer matrix was strained beyond its normal limits.

And then, with an explosion that rocked the ship, the E-space drive overloaded.

Shadow woke from his hibernation, the alarms screaming. Around him, the rest of the hive were also rousing themselves. Threads of confusion ricocheted through the hive mind.

He sent an intention to check on the humans, to find out what had happened, and left. He felt Spiketail follow him. Neither said anything. Both had a good idea of what had happened to the ship.

The air shafts twisted and turned before coming to a small grille. Shadow tore it open with a flick of his claws and dived through.

The cryochamber beyond was filled with drowsy humans, some desperately trying to adjust to the sudden change. There were a few moans of surprise as they saw the lithe black drones drop into their midst, but Shadow ignored them, heading straight for Hector.

[What's going on?] he asked bluntly.

Hector looked up, laughed bitterly, and rotated the display above his hypersleep capsule so that the drones could see.

Critical E-space drive overload at T+00:01:16:29.

Power core status: 1% power remaining.

Estimated time of power core failure: 7 minutes.

Current location: 5 light-years from destination, sector 197845 Kavash Nebula.

[At least we tried,] said Shadow quietly.

Jake looked up, the last of the hypersleep sickness wearing off. For a moment, he saw Shadow not as the black terror that he appeared, but another person.

"It failed, though, didn't it?" said Hector. "We're all doomed. And no doubt your lot will now turn to the only supplies they have."

[It's not over yet,] said Spiketail suddenly. Her tail snaked out and pointed at a small icon in the corner of the display.

The icon was a series of concentric rings, with a blue dot just above the centre.

"We'll never get the power together for a landing," said Hector.

[And if we don't even try?] demanded Shadow.

"Shadow's right," said Jake. "We've got a chance, however remote it is. We need to get to the bridge and start work."

"I'm telling you, it won't work!" barked Hector. "The power will run out and we'll be coasting. This ship is not aerodynamic – if we hit atmosphere without power, we'll just drop and explode."

[Again, you seem to think you have a choice,] said Spiketail sibilantly.

Hector stared at her, and then laughed mirthlessly. "All right. If we're going to die, we might as well do it on an impossible chance."

The journey to the bridge went in a blur. Shadow moved forward to stare through the forward portholes.

A little green orb was visible through the windows, growing rapidly. It was already possible to pick out each of the three continents visible, as the ship juddered with reverse thrust.

The lights went out as power was diverted. Hector's brow creased with concentration as he played the helm controls like a piano. The _Charon_ groaned in protest as he tried to turn it away from a direct impact on the surface.

The planet grew until it filled the slowly turning view.

And then the juddering stopped. The engines had run out of power, and they were now flying a five thousand ton glider without any form of aerodynamics.

***

On the planet below, the native life forms looked up to see a blazing star falling through the sky.

The heat from the star radiated off, and the trees closest to it burst into flame. Flying creatures swarmed away from the inferno.

The star continued to fall at an angle, dropping all the time.

And then it hit the tree line.

The trees of NMR-752-M1 were even larger and sturdier than the largest Earth trees, but they were battered aside like matchsticks by the five thousand ton behemoth.

As the _Charon_ ploughed into the ground, shockwaves resonated across the landscape. The ship created a huge furrow behind it, not being noticeably slowed by the landscape.

A huge cliff loomed in front of the fiery wreck, and it shuddered as the ship slammed into it, and finally stopped.

Nothing moved.

The forest slowly returned to normal, and the thing that had been watching the entire scene got up onto a rock pile on the cliff.

So. There were newcomers to the planet.

The wreck, and particularly its occupants, was of great interest to the watcher. But he was patient. Patience was a trait he had learned during his five-year imprisonment on the planet.

Now, of course, he could leave anytime he wanted. But this place was a paradise for a hunter.

So he had returned.

Ironic. Most of those shipwrecked on this planet wished to leave, but couldn't. He and his kin could, but didn't want to.

He sighed. Now that the smoke was clearing, he could see the shape of the wreck, and recognised the design. Nothing that he hadn't dealt with before. Not too much of a challenge.

These aliens were adaptable, but physically puny. They seldom survived for more than a week here. And they were technologically backward. They might hold some interest – they were cunning – but no challenge.

Not for a Yautja, anyway.

***

NEW STRANDED VESSEL LOCATED

ANALYSING OCCUPANTS

OCCUPANTS IDENTIFIED: TWO DIFFERENT SPECIES

FIRST SPECIES: MAMMALIAN BIPEDAL SPECIES DESIGNATION 'HUMAN'

ORIGIN: PLANET NY27957-4, KNOWN BY NATIVES AS 'EARTH'

SECOND SPECIES: ARTIFICIAL BIOMECHANOID (MODIFIED GENOME) DESIGNATION 'XENOMORPH'

ORIGIN: N/A

THREAT LEVEL OF COMBINED STRANDED: LOW

SUGGESTED PROCEDURE: OBSERVATION AND TESTING

CALCULATION ENDS

***

Blackness.

That was his first impression. Complete blackness. It was a sensation he hadn't experienced since his transformation. His senses had always been alive with the sensing of heat, electrical signals, his sonar, plus all the usual senses - although 'normal' vision was a little weird, due to having the light-sensitive cells buried beneath the exoskeleton.

As a sensation, it was terrifying.

[Hello? Is anyone else here?]

Shadow tried to move, and pain flooded through him. The Alien nervous system located the sources of pain, and relayed the information to him in great detail. His tail, right leg, and left foot were all crushed by something.

There was a soft groan from nearby. Human.

"What happened?" the groaner asked. That quiet one, Jake, by the sound of it.

[Two possibilities,] said Shadow, relieved at not being alone. [We're either dead, and in some variety of afterlife, or we're alive and survived the crash.]

Something crashed, and a spark of pain and irritation hit him over the hive link. Spiketail, it would seem, was also alive.

'Sight', in its various forms, was slowly returning to him. They were clearly on the bridge of the Charon, and he could tell that consciousness was slowly returning to several others on the bridge. His heat sense could tell that the outer hull of the ship was at an incredible temperature. He could also tell, due to the lack of electrical signals, that several people had died.

He crawled slowly out from under the collapsed control panel, feeling the damage to his body repairing already.

His sense slowly strengthened, and once more he could 'see' through the walls of the bridge. The details were fuzzy, but he could see many cooling bodies. He counted them. Seven.

There only had been thirteen humans on board.

As he moved towards the door to see if they were trapped by the wreckage, he stumbled over the dead body of Captain Caraeus Hector.


End file.
